Footage has emerged showing celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay travelling to a remote Scottish island in search of a “rare” “delicacy”. But what he uncovered wasn’t cuisine – it was pure cruelty.
In the four minute long clip, filmed as part of an episode of his series The F Word, Ramsay sets out for the Isle of Lewis in northwest Scotland to cook and eat young seabird chicks.
The birds are killed during the Guga hunt, the UK’s last legal seabird hunt, where hundreds or thousands of Gannet chicks (known locally as Guga) are slaughtered every year as part of a cultural tradition. Yanked from their nests with a pole, the chicks – who are still too young to fly – are completely defenceless and unable to escape. They are killed by being beaten over the head with a rod. They are plucked, scorched and dismembered in full view of other birds, including their parents. This is the so-called “delicacy” Ramsay travelled hundreds of miles to partake in.
He calls the Gannets “notoriously greedy” – an interesting choice of words from someone pursuing one across land and sea for the sake of a novel culinary experience. But his comments betray a deeper truth; that the hunt’s days are numbered.
The Guga hunt is only legal due to a narrow exemption in the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981), allowing Gannets to be taken from the island of Sula Sgeir under licence from NatureScot – Scotland’s public Nature Agency. The licence is discretionary, and every year NatureScot actively signs off on the death of these innocent chicks for the sake of maintaining a cultural tradition. There is currently a petition to stop this year’s licence going ahead, and it’s close to reaching 40,000 signatures.
Gordon’s reaction also reveals something else: Guga isn’t needed. This isn’t about food security or survival. It is, quite simply, a delicacy. The Guga hunt is a practice once rooted in subsistence, but it is now continued for tradition’s sake alone.
A species at risk – and still being killed
Killing wildlife for a delicacy is unacceptable. Gannets shouldn’t be on the menu.
We’ve commissioned polling that shows 69% of Scots with a view want the law changed to end the hunt, while 72% do not believe the hunt holds cultural importance. We’ve hired a full-time Scottish campaigner to drive this work forward on the ground, and supported wildlife photographer Rachel Bigsby’s government petition – now surpassing 100,000 signatures, making it the fourth most signed petition in Scottish history and the largest animal welfare petition Scotland has ever seen. At the same time, we’ve put sustained pressure on NatureScot not to grant this year’s licence – forcing this issue onto the desks of those with the power to bring it to an end.
This is only the beginning, and we will not stop until the UK’s last seabird hunt is finally history.
But we can’t do that without your support. All of this has been made possible by ordinary people choosing to support our work – giving a few pounds a month to help drive real change. You can help power this work by donating a small monthly amount. Your support saves lives.